天下制覇

I really need to stop giving anime writers any credit whatsoever.

Impressions:

The end of the big cliffhanger is… she just gets unceremoniously shot, and within three minutes, is totally forgotten from the remainder of the episode, and presumably, the show. What a fool I was in assuming that they wouldn't just go "Feh. Tired of her. GONE." This is how shows write out characters when there's a sudden contract dispute. Strong female characters. Natsuko, Nami, Naricia (or whatever her name was)… maybe we're just killing characters whose names start with N. Hey, that sort of works for Knife, Shadow too. Way to get on board with the trend, Caligula. Now Darling in the Franxx just needs to kill Nana and we'll have run the table. Also, this is a character who has been the singular focus for the last three episodes, and doesn't even get a mawkish look back as Sousuke passes out at the end. No, his thoughts are on Chidori. So why the hell were we glued at the hip to this girl for the last month? Literally the last conversation he had with her was "Hey, you're probably one of those Children of the Corn I keep finding myself stuck around," and that too is apparently just tossed in the bin alongside her corpse. What was the goddamned point?

But that's probably enough talking about her since she hardly mattered at all. Let's get to the real 'meat', Sousuke beating up yet another ugly thug pulled out of someone's ass. It's the same rock 'em sock 'em fighting as this series has always been with the same ending. Sousuke wins, but his mech is rendered nonfunctional. Or he passes out, which is kind of the same thing. I'm not even wholly clear on what this big master plan of his was for. To catch that one dude? Who he immediately gut-shot? Because he has some kind of secret information or lead on the ginormous organization who unleashed a global attack? But you know what the really amazing thing is? It's off again next week for another recap episode. It's rare for me to throw up my hands and declare myself finished with things partway through a season, but between this and Sinners, the shows are making a damn good argument to just go on vacation for a couple weeks.